Day 16 a.m. - The City Palace and the stairway to the stars.

Our coach drove us right into the centre Jaipur, back in the thick of things again - traffic, noise, dust, chaos, crowds - and we started the day at the City Palace Museum. We all agreed it was good to see a Palace with things still in it rather than just an empty shell.

Decorated doorway in the City Palace

The most famous exhibits are the 2 giant silver urns, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest silver objects in the world, that were commissioned by Madho Singh the second, so he could carry sacred water from the Ganges with him when he went to Edward VII's coronation - being wise of course not to trust the water in London - a nice ironical twist for English tourists who now come here and daren't drink the water.
We then walked down the road a couple of hundred yards to see the Jantar Mantar - the largest and best preserved of the 5 observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh II in the 18th century - this assortment of astronomical instuments on a monumental scale is the most wonderful sculpture park. The 16 giant instruments all have a different purpose. The Samrat Yantra - a 75 ft sundial - forecasts the crop prospects for the year, and looks for all the world like a stairway to the stars





Rashivalaya Yantra comprises 12 pieces, each part representing a sign of the zodiac and facing a different angle and constellation. This is used by astrologers to make accurate horoscopes.



The Jai Prakash Yantra comprises 2 sunken hemispheres and maps out the heavens - it's thought to have been designed by Jai Singh himself to verify the accuracy of the other instruments

Others determine the position of stars and planets at any time of the day or night, can plot the sun's arc from horizon to zenith as well as its altitude, can measure the angle of stars and planets from the equator, and can calculate Jaipur's local time to an accuracy of 20 seconds. Some of the instruments are still used to forecast how hot the summer months will be, the expected date of arrival, length and intensity of the monsoon and the possibilty of floods and famine. As an un-scientist all this complexity is way beyond me, but as an artist I found the whole layout staggeringly beautiful - it just knocks your socks off!

On the way back through the city we came across these jacketed goats - we think they'd probably just looted the shop behind the bus